Manufacturers occasionally want to uniquely interface their hardware with other commercial hardware devices. For example, a manufacturer may want to insure that when a customer is interfacing devices with the manufacturer's hardware, the device meets the manufacturer's approval. Also, in order to prevent theft of computers and computer related hardware, it is known to encode the hardware components such that a digitally authenticated handshake must be performed between the system and the component at power-up. If the handshake is successful, normal operation continues with all enhancements. If the handshake is unsuccessful, the device is disabled or shifted into a lower performance mode.
However, it would be beneficial to increase the security of prior methods and products which authenticate devices when they are connected to one another.